Blu-ray and the reason I'll never buy media on disc again

Today Sony announced their first 50 GB Blu-ray movies which is hyped as better audio and picture quality and is supposed to spur the purchases of new Blu-ray hardware. However, I would be surprised if I would actually notice a difference watching a Bu-ray disc on my 720P/1080i LDC Samsung.

The press release says: “As consumers make the leap to Blu-ray’s incredible high-definition picture and cinema quality audio, they want access to a diverse selection of content packed with added-value features and reference titles,” said David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

I am a huge Sony fan, but disagree with this sentiment.

* As the price of storage comes down and high bandwidth pipelines enter our homes, why would I want to purchase a movie on a Blu-ray disc that I will soon be able to rent/watch on PPV, or maybe even purchase online with a digitial download?
* I think it would be a huge waste to purchase new hardware to support a format that won’t be around long. Too bad Sony didn’t invest this money on leapfrogging the competition on doing hi-quality movie downloads/puchases/renting/etc.
* Who really wants add-value features that comes with this content, and what does that even mean? I rarely ever watch a trailers or out-takes. What else will these discs include?
* Lastly, the first 50 GB Blue-ray disc is the monster blockbuster called ClickAdam Sandler Is that targeting families who want to watch a cheezy comedy together? I don’t know anyone who saw Click, do you?

Dan

I sort of disagree and agree… i do agree with long term goals of why have it on any disc when it could be dvr’ed, on demanded, or whatever. But problem is for high-definition on demand we still are waiting. We can dvr a hd movie, but its not on demand. networks or just catching on to that concept in standard definition still.

with that said, i think its a complete waste to build a blu-ray collection. But a couple hundred bucks for a ps3 which has a blue-ray player with a temporary netflix account to get your blu-ray discs might not be a bad idea. It would be a relatively small investment to enjoy that large hd tv in the short term without the large investment in the long term. just my thoughts….

christian

Yeah, I can see what you mean about hi-def movies and that fact it doesn’t work with on demand. Cable companies have to offer better HD service soon.